Word definitions for ton in dictionaries

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary EnglishWord definitions in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
noun COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES came down on...like a ton of bricks (= very severely ) ▪ I made the mistake of answering back, and she came down on me like a ton of bricks . metric ton weighed a ton (= was very heavy ) ▪ The box was full of books and...

WiktionaryWord definitions in Wiktionary
Etymology 1 n. 1 A unit of weight (mass) equal to 2240 pounds (a long ton) or 2000 pounds (a short ton) or 1000 kilograms (a metric ton). 2 A unit of volume; register ton. 3 In refrigeration and air conditioning, a unit of thermal power defined as 12,000...

Douglas Harper's Etymology DictionaryWord definitions in Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
"measure of weight," late 14c. The quantity necessary to fill a tun or cask of wine, thus identical to tun (q.v.). The spelling difference became firmly established 18c. Ton of bricks in the colloquial figurative sense of what you come down on someone like...

WordNetWord definitions in WordNet
n. a United States unit of weight equivalent to 2000 pounds [syn: short ton , net ton ] a British unit of weight equivalent to 2240 pounds [syn: long ton , gross ton ]

WikipediaWord definitions in Wikipedia
Tôn is a Vietnamese surname. The name is transliterated as Sun in Chinese and Son in Korean . Ton is the anglicized variation of the surname Tôn.

Usage examples of ton.

Nell came out, nine-tenths of a ton of daintiness, and rumbled admonitorily at Nugget, who trailed her closely.

This human cargo represents a weight of about twenty tons, which is equivalent to that of thirty persons, two boars, three sows, twelve piglets, thirty fowls, ten dogs, twenty rats, a hundred balled or potted breadfruit and banana plants, and twelve tons of watergourds, seeds, yams, tubers, coconuts, adzes and weapons.

But despite his acquittal the Latvian remained a dead Latvian and weighed on his mind like a ton of bricks, although he was said to have been a frail little man, afflicted with a stomach ailment to boot.

Within only a few seconds, at least a ton of the amorphous flesh had spewed out of the hole.

In 1976, a tank truck went off an elevated freeway, exploded and released 19 tons of anhydrous ammonia, killing seven people.

They located two roads, neither passable by now, one track leading to a shallow pit where many tons of apatite had been removed.

The consort was a pinnace--as vessels of her class were then and for many years called--of sixty tons burden, as already stated, having two masts, which were put in--as we are informed by Bradford, and are not allowed by Professor Arber to forget--as apart of her refitting in Holland.

What we have here is about forty tons of argentite with a very high silver content.

Conscious that the human organism, normally capable of sustaining an atmospheric pressure of 19 tons, when elevated to a considerable altitude in the terrestrial atmosphere suffered with arithmetical progression of intensity, according as the line of demarcation between troposphere and stratosphere was approximated from nasal hemorrhage, impeded respiration and vertigo, when proposing this problem for solution, he had conjectured as a working hypothesis which could not be proved impossible that a more adaptable and differently anatomically constructed race of beings might subsist otherwise under Martian, Mercurial, Veneral, Jovian, Saturnian, Neptunian or Uranian sufficient and equivalent conditions, though an apogean humanity of beings created in varying forms with finite differences resulting similar to the whole and to one another would probably there as here remain inalterably and inalienably attached to vanities, to vanities of vanities and to all that is vanity.

I could retort to that, Axel came back into the kitchen, now sporting a khaki vest with a ton of pockets and carrying three fishing rods and a small case.

But Dutch Ton stood up, took the letter from Axel, who was looking a bit disappointed to have his services broken off so abruptly, and tucked the paper into a gap in his coat.

Surinamese bauxite, one ton for the Jamaican, and two tons for the Arkansan.

Kitels that the Birts fled for safety at the burning and sacking of Deorhyst by Sweyne, and it was by their aid that our family reclaimed some hides of forest land within a short distance of Pendyke and established a settlement, to which they gave the name of Birtsmereton, or the ton or village where the Birts settled close upon the borders of a great mere or moor-land swamp.

While the pumps clanged throughout the ship to free her of the hundreds of tons of sea-water that washed through her, von Kleine left the bridge and, with his engineer commander and damage control officer, they listed the injuries that Blucher had received.